The Great Garage Clean Up!

The men in Kevin's family men are notorious for their garages. Now, I know that all garages have clutter, but honestly people...you have no idea what I am talking about here! First of all, Kevin's grandpa has a 2-car garage, an entire basement, and an attic FULL of stuff. Uncle Al has a 6-car garage, full of everything anyone could ever imagine! And for Kevin, we have a 3-car garage, an additional 1 1/2 car garage, a large furnace room for Kevin to keep things in and now we have just built a new 2-car garage over at one of our rental properties to keep more stuff in. Here is a glimpse into just a little of what I am talking about...

According to me and the average person, this is way too much junk. But to them, treasures! I will admit that Kevin can always go out into one of the garages and find anything

he needs (or I need), and with impressive speed I might add!
As nice as it is being married to a man who is so resourceful and handy, the massive amount of stuff and mess is a definite con. So, I finally asked Kevin if I could try to organize our 3-car garage...the one that is actually attached to our home. Let me assure you that trying to organize thousands of screws, hinges, and all of those other little things that I have no idea how to use is an impossibility. Plus, Kevin gets very uptight when any of his things are messed with. So, I attempted to leave his things as intact as possible, but to just move things around a little. Kevin was so helpful in that he took a LOT of stuff over to the new garage. The clean-up is not finished, but sooooo much better! I would like to get Kevin another shelving unit so that he can at least put all of his boxes of mismatched things onto shelves and off the floor. But, for now, anyone who knows Kevin would surely be impressed with our clean and mostly

organized garage!

Emily's Broken Arm

Here is my darling little 22-month old niece, Emily, with her broken arm. She walked off of Mindy and Tom's bed and landed the wrong way. These pictures were taken after her surgery...they had to put pins in her little arm due to the way she broke it. I don't have any pictures yet of her brand new hot pink, cast...very fashionable choice in color Em!

For those of you who do not already know, Emily is going to be a big sister in early August. Mindy and Tom are expecting the first Jack family grandson, who will join the 4 Jack granddaughters. We love our girls, but we are all super excited to experience the world of a little boy!

The Kid Lies

Kennedy is going through a little lying stage at the moment. She lies to manipulate any situation. Her lies always follow a pattern, so it is easy to tell when she is trying to pull one over on us. She always starts out by saying, "________ told me..." Like, "Mommy told me no night nights." Or, "Daddy told me we go to the park." Better yet, "Daddy told me cake and fish (goldfish) for lunch." When we call her on it, she folds her little arms in a "I Dream of Jeannie" way and says a disgusted, "ugh!" Then we tell her that she has told a lie and has to go to time out for lying. Hopefully this phase will pass and our girl will not grow up to be a big ol' compulsive liar. We really aren't too worried as we remember Katelyn going through a similar stage at this age blaming things on Gunther. However, Katelyn only told a few lies, not several a day like Kennedy is pulling.

Anyway, here she is, being her ornery little self, making a silly face for the camera (which is another phase she is in right now)